Thoughts on Social Media

In the world you are growing up in social media is the norm. You watch YouTube videos of people playing video games and when you play them you pretend to be recording your own YouTube videos with your own subscribers.  You see your mom and dad and others on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites almost non-stop. You will grow up knowing what it's like to always be in constant contact with nearly every person you meet. Every post you make, every photo you upload will be there for the world to see, for them to comment on at their leisure or to follow you in silence as you make your way through life. Those posts you make never disappear, at least until you delete your accounts all together, your posts just move further down the line making way for new updates. People will read your posts and see the life you wish for them to see; you are in total control of all the information you choose to share.

How do you want your life to appear to those who follow you? Some choose to let the world in on literally every detail of their life; the good, the bad, and the ugly. Most of us social media users choose to show only the good, revealing a fake perception of reality, after all who wants to hear about our woes?  It's much easier and more fun to make people believe you live a fairy tale life. The best part about social media is if you don't like what people have to say you unfriend them, delete them, or unfollow them.  Pretty simple really.  I've done it. I've unfriended people who don't keep in touch with me.  I've unfollowed people who write only negativity or for that matter write only about how "perfect" their lives are and I've deleted people who are always trying to sell me something on their profile. But it's unfortunate that social media allows us to create these perceptions of a lifetime of perfection. Our followers or "friends" begin to believe this perception as real. They think that our lives are outlined in 24 karat gold, that our children are angels all the time, that our marriages are unbreakable, solid, and full of constant bliss, that our jobs fill us with immeasurable joy day in and day out. The people who read our posts see smiles, hugs, kisses, vacations, leisure, and love. We create a stage and we are the actors only revealing the side we want them to see. I'm guilty of this and you likely will be too. Our ego has the upper hand.  What you don't see on my 'Fakebook' page are my tears, my trials, my pain. You don't see that my kid (yes, you Gavin) is far from perfect, that my marriage is rocky, that I struggle with life in the military every single day, that I am a sinner as far from perfection as perfection gets.

So the lesson I want you to learn from all of this is that social media is a great way to share your thoughts, feelings, and ideas with the world. It is a wonderful venue for promoting business and positivity.  It is a great way to stay connected with people all over the world which can benefit us in a plethora of ways over the course of our lifetime.  Yet, social media can also be a complete lie. It can make you feel less of a person as you compare your imperfect life with only the gold outlined lives your social media friends choose to share.  Know that even these "perfect" Fakebookers also have real struggles just like you. That behind the curtains of the stage they have created are the real people, with real lives, and real problems they choose not to share.